Lisbon - Berlin - Copenhagen - Amsterdam - Brussels

Flo
Traveller
10724 comments

Hi!

This route is easily doable with the 5in10 - I guess you will go to Berlin by plane and then fly home from Bruxelles? Plan maybe for a two week trip in total, fly to Berlin, spend some days there and validate your IR pass only the day you leave Berlin. Same applies before going back home: Arrive on the last day of validity of your IR pass in Bruxelles, spend some days there and then fly home.

:arr: Berlin - Kobenhavn: Overnight with [u]https://rail.cc/en/night-train/berlin-malmoe-en-300/58[/u] Berlin-Night Express to Malmö, continue with free Oresundtag to Kobenhavn. There are as well connections during via Puttgarden - Rodby - there even is a direct ICE train: Berlin 1126 - 1811 Kobenhavn

:arr: Kobenhavn - Amsterdam: [u]https://rail.cc/en/interrail-night-train/copenhagen-amsterdam-cnl40473/13[/u]

:arr: Amsterdam - Bruxelles: Hourly free IC trains; there also are faster Thalys connection but they require a quite expensive supplement, I'd recommend going with one of the free IC trains

Other places you could visit: Hamburg (if you want to go there I'd recommend to go there in between Berlin and Kobenhavn as you then will have better train connections); Bruges in Belgium (much nicer than Bruxelles); basically you can reach many nice places around Amsterdam and Bruxelles in very short time with excellent train connections (Den Haag, Rotterdam, Bruges, Gent, Antwerpen).

Follow the link and read the first four topics carefully: [u]https://rail.cc/en/forum-interrail[/u]

I hope this helps you for a start - if you want to support the work here at the forum and website, please buy your ticket at [ux]https://rail.shop/interrail[/ux] , thank you. :)


Greetings to Lisboa (where I'll be in beginning of February)!
Flo 8)

inesfilipa
Traveller
6 comments

Flo,

Thank you a LOT! That's a big help, for sure!

I'm going to read and study it in detail :)

inesfilipa
Traveller
6 comments

Oh, and in February, you can miss to watch a Sport Lisboa e Benfica game at Luz Stadium eheheh ;)

Anything you need from Lisboa (what i doubt ;) lol) just tell!

***

Flo
Traveller
10724 comments

Thank you - I'll PM you if I have a question. :)

And talking about football...what about Porto FC? ;) :D

inesfilipa
Traveller
6 comments

Oh God, what a mistake, I meant to say you can'[b]T [/b]miss a SLB football game lol My sleep is taking over me, it's late here...
FCP doesn't worth, at all! ;P

You feel free to ask anything! I'll join with my friends, and when more questions arise, I will post here too!

Thanks again :)

Head
Traveller
101 comments

[quote]This route is easily doable with the 5in10 - I guess you will go to Berlin by plane and then fly home from Bruxelles? [/quote]
If they fly from/to Portugal, then I doubt they actually need InterRail. For travel between just 4 cities not extremely far from each other, InterRail may not be the best option. Moreover the pass price in the above itinerary is not final, it will require paying supplements.
As for alternatives. For instance, easyJet sells air tickets from Berlin to Copenhagen for 18 euros for summer.
From Copenhagen you can good chances to catch Europa-Spezial to Hamburg (29 euros) or up to Holland border (39 euros), if you book in advance on [ux]https://rail.shop/bahn[/ux] .
Or you can get to Hamburg for 29 euros on ICE, and then cheaply get to Holland border with Niedersachsen-Ticket (28 euros for all 4 travellers) - [ux]https://rail.shop/bahn[/ux]
In Holland there also used to be some kind of cheap ticket for mini-group travel. Hopefully it's still there.
Night train mentioned above may also have cheap fares.
and so on )

P.S. Porto FC isn't any good... )

Peter
Traveller
9333 comments

hi ...

this might be like that.

[b]BUT:[/b]
- often you won't get these limited special fares any more
- you are fixed on trains, dates and times and completely lose your flexibility. that's the reason why to [b]InterRail = freedom + flexibility[/b].

using a plane:
- it is not ecological
- you loose the feeling of the distance you travel
- and cheap airlines may offer flights for some EUROs but then you have to add the taxes, extra costs for the bag packs, ... and again you are fixed on dates and times. don't forget to remember that most of these airports used by cheap airlines are in the nowhere (in Germany well know Frankfurt-Hahn which is 2 hours away from Frankfurt, Hamburg airport is somewhere in the north, ...) - and you have to pay the bus or train to get to the city centre. railway stations are usually in the city centre.

and: if you meet a nice girl/boy at a hostel, it isn't possible any more to stay one more night, otherwise you loose your special discounted ticket. ;)


[b]concerning supplements on Berlin-Copenhagen-Amsterdam-Brussels:[/b]

[b]Berlin-Copenhagen[/b] by day train: [b]NO supplements needed![/b]
[b]Copenhagen-Amsterdam[/b] by day train: [b]NO supplements needed![/b]
[b]Amsterdam-Brussels[/b] by day train: [b]NO supplements needed![/b]


Only if you use [b]night trains[/b] (you save travel time and save the hostel, which will be the same or more expensive) on:

1) [b]Berlin-Copenhagen[/b] via Malmö/Lund (Berlin-Night-Express):
supplement for a bed in a 6-bed-compartment is EUR 15

2) [b]Copenhagen-Amsterdam[/b] by CNL night trai: seat EUR 4, bed EUR 20


[b]summary: InterRail is a good choice![/b]

I just had to add this, as often people say: ooh you get cheap tickets here and the planes are as well cheap and special offers everywhere.
sometimes, if you have city to city travels on a fixed date and time, you might find cheaper soloutions.
but they forget that these special offers are limited, that you have in most cases to book days/weeks in advance, that you are fixed on dates and times and that using these cheap airlines has a lot of hidden costs (taxes, fuel supplements, ...) when having a bag pack with you - don't forget to talk about ecological factor.

Peter

Head
Traveller
101 comments

Hi,
InterRail is definetely a good choice if you travel a lot by train. But for just 3 trips... I doubt that.
Of course you can meet a girl/boy in Berlin. But you can meet her/him in Brussels as well, and from Brussels you anyway have an air ticket, and probably much more expensive than 18 euros, and if you lose it, the alternative travel would be several times more expensive than Berlin - Copenhagen )
(so the best solution is probably to meet girl/boy in Amsterdam) )

In this particular case, flying Berlin - Copenhagen is a good option, since easyJet use main airports. Both Schonefeld and Kastrup have quick connections to city centres by local trains, and these connections are cheap. Moreover, they can even be free, since tourist often anyway buy a day (3-day, weekly) travelcard for local transport. Baggage fee is certainly an issue, but since they will be coming from Portugal probably on some low cost airline as well, they would adopt their luggage to that (i.e. having one backpack for two travellers or having wheeled bag that suites carry-on dimensions)

You're right to point out that using day trains requires no supplements. But it increases the quantity of nights when they need a hotel/hostel, so probably it won't bring any overall money saving.

I would recommend them using InterRail only if they finally decide to visit more cities. Anyway, they still have a lot of time to plan the itinerary and it's up to them to decide.

inesfilipa
Traveller
6 comments

Hi!

Well, this forum will definitely help us to do this trip!

The idea was to have a “rail adventure”. We thought if we visit cities closer to each other, then we would spend less time inside a train and more knowing the cities.

But maybe we are not thinking well, we aren’t thinking as an interRail traveller.

If we choose more cities, then the trip may no longer be doable with 5 in 10-pack, right?
I would love to visit more cities, but we have a bit limited budget, so we can not spend much money.

Peter
Traveller
9333 comments

1) I see no way to do this journey in an acceptable way with single train tickets in total less than 159 EUR ( = 5 in 10 pass)
2) on the one hand you say use a plane (= so you need an extra hostel), on the other you say using day trains (without supplements) means: no supplements but increases the quantity of nights. in my eyes this argumentation is not understandable. ;)
3) this is an InterRail forum - and not a forum to promote flights - it is a rail travel forum . the sense and thoughts behind all this (=the reason why I do all this work since now more than 10 years) is to get the feeling of European distances, feel freedom and to avoid ecological misbehaviour like using planes.
4) I really enjoy your topics (@head), but in this case, I can't follow you.

Head
Traveller
101 comments

[quote]If we choose more cities, then the trip may no longer be doable with 5 in 10-pack, right?[/quote]
it depends on the cities. Of course there are cities like Berlin that require several days. These are best placed in the beginning and end of your InterRail trip, so they don't count in this 10-day period. By the way Brussels is not such a city, so if you choose travelling with a pass, it's better to stick Brussels in the middle (or even go to Bruges instead or some other nice places in the region). But there are also smaller great places that are well done by day trip or that like. For instance, Luxembourg. Or Koln.
Check some quality guidebooks (Lonely Planet, Rough Guide, etc) to decide which places are of interest for you, and if you find 6-7 of those - buy InterRail.

Head
Traveller
101 comments

[quote]1) I see no way to do this journey in an acceptable way with single train tickets in total less than 159 EUR ( = 5 in 10 pass)
2) on the one hand you say use a plane (= so you need an extra hostel), on the other you say using day trains (without supplements) means: no supplements but increases the quantity of nights. in my eyes this argumentation is not understandable. ;) [/quote]

Okay, let's assume InterRail costs are just 159 euros. Still for just 3 legs advance point-to-point tickets (and tickets like Wochenende) will be considerably cheaper. But InterRail is definetely worth buying if they include several day trips or just more cities.
Anyway, with just 3 legs is not much of a rail adventure, is it? ) InterRail is about hopping on and off trains at least for part of the trip, I believe )

[quote]3) this is an InterRail forum - and not a forum to promote flights - it is a rail travel forum . the sense and thoughts behind all this (=the reason why I do all this work since now more than 10 years) is to get the feeling of European distances, feel freedom and to avoid ecological misbehaviour like using planes.[/quote]

You do an outstanding work, and this website is the best of it's kind.
But anyway I believe it's better to give people information of all possibilities, not only InterRail ones, so they can pick an optimal ticket for their journey. Riding trains on point-to-point tickets also gives good feeling of distances (or sometimes even a better one, when you manage a long ride with a cheap ticket))).
As for planes, I don't consider them that much of a disaster. They are surely less greener than most trains, but they do much more good than harm in the long run. For instance, it's cheap air tickets that made many InterRail trips possible at all. The EU is punishing airlines for emissions (which are not that huge when compared to other industries), but fails to provide alternative for travellers. I understand Eurostar is somewhat greener than easyJet, but I'm not going to ride it unless they slash their unbelievable surcharges for Interraillers.

inesfilipa
Traveller
6 comments

[quote]Anyway, with just 3 legs is not much of a rail adventure, is it?[/quote]

But a route with 7 cities, and with a 5 in 10 pack, I’ll have 4 cities in which I can only spend one day to visit, is that enough?

Flo
Traveller
10724 comments

Please don't let your planning of the trip getting too much influeced by the discussion going on here. ;)

Most of the time you plan an ambitious route at home but while traveling you probably will get exhausted by this one day - one city thing. One advantage of the IR pass is that you don't have to think about buying tickets along the route (except for some reservations of course, but as you've seen here you don't necessarily need them along your route).

Peter
Traveller
9333 comments

;)

Head
Traveller
101 comments

[quote][quote]Anyway, with just 3 legs is not much of a rail adventure, is it?[/quote]
But a route with 7 cities, and with a 5 in 10 pack, I’ll have 4 cities in which I can only spend one day to visit, is that enough?[/quote]
Why 1 day? If you have 5 rail trips and there is 9 days between the first and the last, it means that you have those 9 days for 4 cities that are in the middle of the route = approx. 2 days per city. You can of course spend just 1 day in some smaller city (there are many magnificent places with just 2-3 great attractions, like Fussen with Neuschwanstein castle, which is done with a day trip from Munchen or Stuttgart), but 3 days in bigger one.
You can also visit a certain smaller city on your way to a bigger one. For example, you take that night train from Copenhagen, but you don't neсessarily need to ride it all the way to Amsterdam. You can get out early in the morning in Koln to see the cathedral and continue to Amsterdam in the evening. Since InterRail will be valid for unlimited travel during all that day, you can also make a short trip to some other cities in the region, including say Dusseldorf or even Luxembourg, before returning to Koln to pick your luggage from station locker and riding to Amsterdam (or Brussels!) in the evening.
And you can arrange the same small excursions from Copenhagen or other places on your arrival day. In this way you'll make the most of your railpass.

inesfilipa
Traveller
6 comments

[quote]Since InterRail will be valid for unlimited travel during all that day, you can also make a short trip to some other cities in the region, including say Dusseldorf or even Luxembourg, before returning to Koln to pick your luggage from station locker and riding to Amsterdam (or Brussels!) in the evening.[/quote]

Hummmm... ok, i'm understanding better now.


Thank you all, it's nice to have this several opinions, it makes more easy to get start planning the trip. We might include Poland on the route, we'll see :)

Thanksss